Vancouver home sales still well below historical averages

Uptick in March house sales, but still down year over year.

Photograph by: Jason Payne
, PNG

VANCOUVER — March home sales in the Lower Mainland were up over February, but still down from both historical averages and March 2012, area real estate boards reported Wednesday.

In the Vancouver area, there were 2,347 sales in March, an increase of 30.6 per cent over February but a decrease of 18.3 per cent from a year ago, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reported.

The March sales are the second-lowest since 2001 and 30-per-cent below the 10-year average for the month, according to the board. Sales of detached properties are down 48 per cent and apartment sales are down 39.5 per cent from the red-hot market of March 2011.

At the same time, new listings were 14.4 per cent below the 10-year new listings average. The total number of homes for sale in the Vancouver area is 15,460, while the number of listings reached a peak of just over 18,000 last summer.

“While home sales were below what’s typical for March, we are seeing more balance between the number of sales and listings on the market in the last two months, which is having a stabilizing impact on home prices,” said Sandra Wyant, REBGV president. “These are the first two months that we’ve seen an increase in the last ten months — it may be a small, modest increase — but it is an increase, which is the opposite to what we had happening prior to that.”

The benchmark price for all residential properties in the board’s area is $593,100, down 3.9 per cent from last year and up 0.9 per cent from January. For detached properties, the benchmark price is down five per cent from last year to $906,900. For apartments, the benchmark price is down 3.3 per cent to $362,100.

The list-to-sell ratio is at 15.5 per cent, Wyant said, adding that this is a notable improvement from the 10 per cent it was in January.

The number of new listings in the Fraser Valley — which includes Surrey — fell 11 per cent from last year, but the month ended with more than 9,500 homes for sale, the board said.

“Although we saw a typical spring uptick in activity from February to March, our sales remained at about 70 per cent of the norm for March and our new listings came in at 90 per cent of what the Board would typically receive,” said Ron Todson, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB).

“Because inventory levels are in check, prices are staying in check.”

The benchmark price of a single-family detached home in the Fraser Valley was $544,300 in March, up 0.6 per cent from March 2012. The benchmark price for townhomes was down slightly; apartments were up slightly.

“Benchmark prices for all three main property types in the Fraser Valley increased in value during the first quarter of 2013,” Todson said in a news release. “Since January, detached homes are up by one per cent, townhomes by 0.6 per cent; and apartments by two per cent.”

On April 1, the province reverted to the GST and PST tax structure. Under the new rules, tax on real estate commissions is reduced to five per cent from the 12 per cent HST, and Wyant said she has heard some buyers were waiting until April to save that money. Wyant, who has been a working realtor in Maple Ridge for the past 22 years, said while there are no standard rates for real estate commissions, what she would charge is seven per cent on the first $100,000 and 2.5 per cent on the remainder (split between buyer’s and seller’s realtors). Under the new tax structure and using Wyant’s rates, the tax savings would be $1,190 in tax on a property worth $500,000; while they would be $2,065 on a deal worth $1 million.

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